HARWICH Runners were out in force at the weekend, with many members either running or organising races.

Simon Day made the journey to Sussex to tackle the popular Brighton Marathon.

His previous best time of three hours and 16 minutes was set last year at Halstead.

However, he managed to improve on that considerably with a splendid sub-three hour time, clocking 2h 59m 31s.

Also among the 12,500 finishers were Clair Block, who crossed the line in 5h 24m in her debut marathon, and Tracey George, in 6h 18m.

Most of the club, however, descended upon the picturesque village of Little Bromley to the Harwich-organised 10km race.

Stephen Peck, in his first-ever 10km race, had a good battle with London Marathon hopeful Robin Brookes.

Peck edged it, finishing in 37m 43s to take 15th overall and second in the MV40 category.

Brookes finished two places and 14 seconds further back and took third in the MV45 group.

There were a number of age category winners from Harwich, with Claudine Benstead winning the FV55 category and victories also for Elspeth Knott (FV65), Ann Piercy (FV60) and Glyn Peck (MV75).

Kate Hodgkiss clocked a fine 40m 58s to take second in the FV35 group, while newcomer Dave Buckingham was second in the MV70 category with a good time of 52m 41s.

The conditions were hot but the flat course leant itself to allow a number of personal best times to be set.

Many others made their first appearance in the black and white vest over this distance.

Andre Besant (39m 29s) and Chris Payne (39m 35s) both ran inside 40 minutes to claim new PBs with Will Roxby-Clarke (44m 39s) and Francis Mills (45m 10s) also recording big new PBs.

Michelle Cooper-Keeble’s time of 58m 43s was her quickest yet while Dennis Warner and Peter Fraser-Hopewell both recorded their quickest times in the last five years.

Among the many first-time 10k runners were encouraging starts for Archie Barrington (43m 21s), Michael Turner (48m 53s) and Kevin Fitchett (49m 12s). Ellie Haynes is becoming a real asset to the club and recorded 49m 28s on her debut, with other good first-time performances from Nicola Flatt, Anna Young and Sarah Mortimer.

Also running the distance for the first time for Harwich were Michael Ball, Lian Meachen, Harry Young, Niall Burke and Scott Luckey.

Elsewhere, Kieran Callaghan ran his fastest 10km to date with a 49m 8s time at Phoenix Park in Dublin.